All manufactured products are packaged: food, medicines, cosmetics, textiles, furniture, electrical equipment and much more …
Just imagine the oppportunities that this field of work offers you!
A dynamic, innovative sector…
Packaging is the 7th largest sector in French industry, on a par with aeronautics.
- 1,500 businesses
- 115,000 employees; approximately 6% of employees in France,
- €21 billion turnover,
- 3% of the turnover of manufacturing industry,
- 2nd largest industry in Europe by turnover,
- 4th largest exporter worldwide.
The world packaging market represents 500 billion euros and employs 5 million people in more than 100,000 businesses.
France is ranked 5th in the world and produces 4-5 packaging items per person every day.
Packaging companies are to be found throughout France and operate in many different sectors:
| Food and agro-industry | 69 % |
| Health, Pharmacy | 11 % |
| Cosmetics, Hygiene, Perfumery | 10 % |
| Capital goods | 10 % |
Playing multiple roles…
Pleasing consumers, prompting a purchase, protecting and preserving a product, making a product user-friendly, ensuring product safety and integrity, and being environmentally friendly… these are the main role that packaging plays.
Constantly evolving…
Reduction at source, biomaterials, RFID tags, oven-ready packaging, intelligent packaging, active packaging…
And in need of a whole range of skills…
Perfecting high-performance packaging demands well-developed, varied skills:
- Marketing and Design, to sell the product
- Negotiation, to purchase the right quality at the right price,
- Techniques and Methodologies, to meet the constraint of the product lifecycle,
- Production management, to reduce the costs of manufacturing the products.
Primary source for the above information: Sessi 2008 report. Read the full report (in French) at www.industrie.gouv.fr/sessi
Roles in packaging:
- Structuring demand
- Multidisciplinary knowledge of the field of business and related fields
- Capacity for organisation and leadership
- Directors / Managers / Heads of department
- Designing solutions
- Technical skills and managing external relationships
- Capacity to turn theory into practice, enquiring mind, analytical thinking
- Design engineer, head of R and D
- Product manufacture
- Technical skills and managing people
- Capacity to respond
- Production, quality, maintenance manager
- Research and development of new technologies, materials and processes
